Tuesday, 1 September 2015

Soyinka: I Don’t Have Ambassadorial Temperament

* Glo Literary Prize
for Undergraduate Students launched

By Anote Ajeluorou

For young writers, who feel a moral burden to write about
injustice, oppression and burning social issues of the day, with the aim of
attempting to effect a change in the Nigerian or African polity, a word of
advice has come from the eminent writer himself and Nobel laureate Prof. Wole
Soyinka: “I don’t have ambassadorial temperament when I write. I accept my own
responsibility; I carry my own burden myself. Often I question so-called
global, sectional kind of writing that represents. I didn’t set out to
represent Nigeria; no!”

Soyinka was
responding to a question from Caine Prize winner Mr. Tope Folarin on whether he
ever felt a burden of representation as a writer and Osundu’s on if writing
seems like a job cut out for one in terms of political activism and the need to
tackle social and political malaise. It was during An Evening with Wole Soyinka event held in Lagos on Friday when Glo Literary Prize for Undergraduate
Students was also launched. Winners in the three categories of fiction,
drama and poetry will smile home with N1.5 million in each category. Undergraduate
students are to submit original manuscript entries to quality for the prize
designed to encourage the study of literature in Nigeria’s higher institutions.

In responding to Folarin
and Osundu, Soyinka thinks otherwise and says writing directed at other things
was just as good and compelling enough reason to write. What is important,
according to him, is the ability to connect reality and imagination and so help
enlarge the human horizon to its infinite capacities and possibilities. He also
warned writers not to be trapped in slogans, as fascism did not necessarily equate
good literature.

“If you feel strong
enough about issues of justice, social welfare, feminism, which embraces
oppression, then you can go ahead. But the deplorable one is to force oneself
to write about issues. What I’m concerned with is the transformation of the
mind and imagination, to create a new form of reality; a writing that enlarges our
horizon is literature and not necessarily fascism. People get trapped in
slogans. I cannot tolerate fascism in writing. Follow the temper of your heart
and not propaganda”.

The man often called
Kongi fleetingly recalled his days at Mbari with Chinua Achebe, J.P. Clark and
Christopher Okigbo with some nostalgia and bemoaned what the country has become
in the intervening years. “There was Mbari
with Achebe, Clark, who is here with us and Okigbo. These days, a lot more
energy goes into practical survival. There was more leisure back then;
circumstances today are very different”.

Award-winning female
writer Atta also tasked him on feminism and wondered if he is a feminist
himself. According to him, “Feminism is described in so many ways. There are
those who believe men should be castrated, others say a sign of true feminism
is not to wear bra while others think of it as intellectual mentoring. I’m just
a generous man; if you’re a man who believes in helping to change diapers so be
it.

“But I deploy
attempt by society to define what individuals should be. I dissent on
legislation on what consenting adults can do in their privacy. Let’s not
interfere on what adults are. I believe in humanity. I’m confused about
machismo and feminism; you should be yourself!”

An audience member
wanted him to relate his ‘Telephone Conversation’ poem to current political
realities in the country. “’Telephone Conversation’ is on the theme of the
‘negative otherness’, the outsider; racial discrimination is at its core. Now,
we have elite, the chosen ones versus the rest of us. I’m talking about the
mindless, extreme fundamentalists who think only they have the right to
existence. The intolerance of the extreme group is appalling”.

But on a lighter
note, Soyinka wondered how teachers are able to explain the telephone metaphor
of the poem to students since box telephones have gone out of vogue, and with
it the little pranks, especially street telephones that could yield a small
fortune for the young boy hunting for left over coins by a previous user”.

Just like everybody
else, Soyinka said he is also affected by mood swings in his writing and
wondered who doesn’t in response to Mr. Dele Momodu’s question. “It will be
very boring if we have linear stories. There is mood swing; I do have mood
swings. Or don’t you?”

Soyinka felt lifted
by the presence of some Brazilians in the audience represented by a lady who
spoke warmly about him and Africa generally and said she carried the message of
millions of Brazilians of African descent, a country with the largest African
peoples second only to Nigeria. “This is a most inspiring coincidence having just
arrived from a conference Brazil recently,” he said. “It’s very symbolic this
singular identity with the Diaspora and we hope it will grow economically and
politically”.

Also, the foremost
academic lamented the state of education in the country and proposed that a
state of emergency be declared in education to redress the ravaging rut.

Osundu thanked
Soyinka for having “written the roadmap for us” while Folarin said “he had a
profound impact on me when I was growing up”. The three writers and Soyinka
read from his books.

In launching Glo Literary Prize for Undergraduate
Students, an official of Globacom Mr. Ebenezer Kolawole restated the
primacy of literature as a mirror of society and how it preserves traditions,
culture and enriches humanity. Also, Chairman of Globacom Dr. Mike Adenuga
praised Soyinka’s intrepid and artistic spirit, adding, “He is a sedulous
writer and a raconteur par excellence whose works have for decades remained
study materials the world over, and will be so for generations to come”.

The event was
generously spiced with performances. Young Footprints of David provided the
opener. The Bolanle Austin-Peters Production performed the military drill part
of Soyinka’s recent play Alapata Apata to
stunning military precision and applause. Soyinka’s musical soul mate Tunji
Oyelana brought back the mood swing and feel of yesteryears, but not without
commending Kongi’s musical prowess, noting, “Wole Soyinka is not only a writer
of words; all through the 50 years I’ve worked with him, he is a master of
writing notes of music”. He performed ‘I caught you in my trap’ and Soyinka’s
recorded music ‘I love my country I no go lie’.